


True Love's Kiss

by nic



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Margo POV, Quentin & Margo friendship, Quentin is not dead, References to Depression, True Love's Kiss, dealing with season 4, mostly canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 09:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19809349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nic/pseuds/nic
Summary: The Monster is gone but Eliot's in a coma and won't wake up.  Will True Love's Kiss actually work, and why won't Quentin kiss him?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was supposed to be fluff. I started writing it before 4.13 happened. And then couldn't look at it for weeks. So now the story deals with a lot of the themes from Quentin's arc - but he's not dead. The rest follows canon.

After everything, the months of desperate hope, the agonising days of strategising, the endless hours of stalking the Monster, the fraught moments of swinging the axes...they were down to this.

Eliot, alive, breathing.

But he wasn’t waking up.

And Margo’s heart was still broken as a result. 

“Powerful magic, that was,” said the Fillorian healer. “I haven’t seen anything like it.” 

The Earth doctors had been equally useless. They’d stitched Eliot up; had him hooked up to the good drugs for a few days, made sure he was healing and free from infection. Margo insisted that he get the best care possible and had barely left his side. She hadn’t slept properly in days but that hardly seemed to matter. They were so close to getting Eliot back, but the doctors couldn’t explain how long it might be before he awoke (they called it a coma) and the Brakebills staff had agreed. No one knew the damage to Eliot’s mind and if he would ever be able to break free of the prison he’d been trapped in for so long. Not even Penny could get through.

“His walls, they’re like reinforced steel,” Penny told the others. “With another 10 feet of stone around that.” Margo was pacing anxiously, Quentin nervously fidgeting until Alice grabbed his hand, and Fen was sitting by Eliot, every so often leaning over him to check that he was still breathing. “I think he spent so long trying to keep the monster out that he doesn’t know the monster’s gone.”

Sighing, Quentin said, “Well, there’s got to be a way to wake him up. We didn’t do all this just to let him go now!”

It was a conversation they’d had over and over. Margo wanted to smack Q; he was like a broken record. She and Quentin had been trading off sitting by Eliot’s bedside, although now that they were back in Fillory, it looked like they had a third volunteer in Fen for that job. Which was … good, in a sense, although she didn’t like to think about how much longer they’d be doing this. She had a kingdom to reclaim. (And, well, she desperately missed her best friend, but he’d been gone so long now that sometimes the pain just seemed normal. Was it possible to become used to grief? Even while knowing she would do anything to save him?)

Glancing over at Eliot again, she sighed. He looked so peaceful and it was so good to see Eliot dressed, well, not as himself, but at least he wasn’t in an abomination of a t-shirt. Even the hospital garments were better than what the Monster had worn. 

She shuddered at the memory. She hadn’t been around the Monster that much but from what she’d seen, it had been pretty awful. Q had apparently born the brunt of it. He still looked like a shell of a man, jumpy and twitchy, even though he appeared to be dating Alice again (and that made no fucking sense at all).

The healers waved their hands over Eliot a few more times, but there was no response. Not that Margo expected there to be one. If the opium in the air couldn’t get Eliot to wake up then some weak-ass handwaving wasn’t going to do it. They needed a spell and they needed a good one. 

“Fen,” she said. Still commanding, and thankfully, still loved. “You got any more Fillorian nursery rhymes that might help?” Josh (who was busy cooking for everyone) had told her all about the ridiculous game they had to play to unearth the reservoir of magic, which made Margo wonder just what else was hidden in her castle.

Frowning, Fen replied, “I’m not sure. Most of our stories are about battles and dying, not so much about waking up.”

It figured. Some of the stories she’d heard about Fillory made even the worst human fairy-tales seem benign. 

One of the healers waved Fen over and whispered something in her ear. Fen instantly brightened up. “Oh! 

“Oh?” Margo stared at her.

“Yes! There is something!” Fen’s smile grew wider by the second. “It’s one of the sillier tales but most of them have an element of truth to them.” 

“Well, spit it out already!” She couldn’t be the only one waiting with bated breath. Even Quentin managed to look a little interested, but she knew that boy had been burned far too many times to actually hope. 

Smiling, Fen continued, “Have you ever heard the story where the princess is cursed by the evil fairy and is only woken up by a kiss?”

Margo couldn’t help it. She laughed. “Are you fucking kidding me? You think True Love’s Kiss is an actual spell that would work in Fillory?” She wasn’t sure if she should admit that “Enchanted” was one of her favourite movies as a kid (until she realised how fake the whole thing was). “Let me guess, there’s a whole song about it and everything.”

Fen frowned. “There was a song but it was mostly to warn girls to not let strange men kiss them.” She hummed a few bars and shivered. “My aunt taught me it was far more important to learn about that song than true love’s kiss.”

“Your aunt was a wise woman.” She nodded directly at Fen. “So you think it’s worth trying?” 

“Of course!” The mood in the group was a mix of jubilant and sombre as Fen flew back to Eliot’s side. She took his hand and looked lovingly at his face. “Eliot, I know I haven’t been the best wife to you - mostly because I thought you were dead - but I know that what we have is loving and true. You were the first person to ever see me. To ever love me. And know that I love you back.” Her eyes brimmed with tears. “You’re my true love, my husband.” And with that, Fen leaned down and gave him a gentle kiss.

Everyone was quiet. Holding their breath, watching Eliot. Was he stirring? Or was that just the regular inhale of breath? Fen pulled his hand close to her heart. “I love you, Eliot,” she said, and kissed him again.

Still nothing. 

Nothing but a room full of people staring at an unmoving Eliot. 

“Why didn’t it work? Do you think it’s because…” and Fen trailed off, her eyes wide with guilt. “Is it because I did the mourning rituals?” Margo could see the wheels turning behind her eyes. “I’m still a widow! Oh no, this is all my fault!”

Margo could see that Alice was hiding a smile behind her own hand; whereas Q just looked confused. “Or maybe I divorced us!” Fen continued. “Or…”

“Relax, Fen.” Margo sauntered over to the bed. “I got this.” And she knew that she did, assuming this BS magical spell or prophecy or whatever was actually true. She loved Eliot more than anyone, Eliot loved her, and she knew they would be together forever, especially now that they’d saved him from the monster. If anyone was Eliot’s true love, it was her. After all, weren’t they soulmates?

She looked down at his face. So peaceful. It wasn’t often that she saw him sleeping, and most times, he’d been passed out drunk (and she’d usually followed suit,but that had nothing to do with anything relevant at the moment). He was pale, and still with that godawful hair, but it was the cleanest he’d been in a long time.

“Well, are you gonna do it?” Margo shot Penny a death-glare. 

“Way to destroy the mood, 23!”

“What mood?” Penny replied. “The mood where everyone takes their turn kissing Eliot based on some stupid childhood fairy-tale? That’s hardly romantic if you ask me.”

“It doesn’t have to be romantic, it just has to be true.” Margo confidently leaned down and pecked Eliot on the lips.

It was always a little strange, kissing her best friend. Sure, they’d fucked in the past, but that was only when they were drunk, or bored, or both, and it hadn’t happened in a long time. They’d both changed, but it didn’t mean that she loved him any less.

She stared at him, willing his eyelids to flutter. Any kind of sign. But again, nothing.

“Okay, Fen, help me out here. Am I supposed to give a big speech like you did?” Fen just shrugged. “Well, okay then. El, I love you. I can’t imagine life without you and I need you to wake up.” She paused, tears unexpectedly flooding her eyes. “Wake up, dammit. Wake up!”

She would have pounded on his chest if she thought it would make any difference. Margo kissed him again, harder this time, but there was no change. Eliot remained serene, peaceful, asleep. 

Turning away, Margo fled the room. 

\---

“Of all the hetero-normative BS, this takes the cake.” She was bitching to Josh, who had taken it upon himself to do further research and discover that yes, True Love’s Kiss was an actual spell with a historical context that was supposed to work. But apparently it only worked for romantic love, reciprocated on both sides. They were fucked.

“I know, Margo.”

“This is ridiculous. I fucking love Eliot.”

“I know you do.” He held her hand and she was grateful. 

“But what, _agape_ isn’t enough? It has to be _eros_ too?” She frowned. “Maybe if we broke up I could get it up for Eliot again.”

Turning pale, Josh quickly said, “But that wouldn’t fix the problem on his side!”

“You’re right,” Margo replied, and Josh visibly relaxed. It was almost funny. “So what do we do now? Go resurrect El’s ex-boyfriend? Like that’s gonna be easy.” She frowned, looking at the tattered pages of old manuscript again and feeling tempted to throw them across the room. 

There was a hesitant knock at the door before Penny23 walked in. She still wasn’t used to this new Penny, having been in Fillory most of the time he’d been around. The Penny she knew wouldn’t have knocked. And even that thought gave her pause. There had been so much loss. Sure, magic was back, but was all of the sacrifice really worth it?

“So...uh… I might be out of line here, but since you’re Eliot’s best friend I figured I should check with you first,” Penny said. 

Margo raised one perfectly manicured eyebrow. “What, you want my permission to kiss Eliot?” She waved a hand. “Be my guest.”

Shaking his head, he replied, “Sorry, he’s not my type. But I can’t figure out why Quentin didn’t try it.”

Josh laughed. “Quentin? He’s with Alice; totally in love with her. Never even looked at anyone else.” 

There were times that Margo really loved Josh’s innate innocence and ability to dance through life on the surface. And other times, well, there was a reason Margo cultivated several close relationships because just one person could never be enough for her. She patted Josh’s hand in what was hopefully a comforting (but was probably a little condescending) manner. 

“That’s not what I saw,” Penny disagreed. “The last few months, Quentin was completely and utterly obsessed with saving Eliot. I figured they were together and no one was mentioning it because…” and he trailed off, unable to actually formulate a good reason for the oversight. “Because they figured I already knew? Because they didn’t want to remind him what he lost?” He shrugged.

“Maybe I’m wrong.” He seemed defeated. “I just thought that it wouldn’t hurt for Quentin to try the spell. But instead he took off right after you left.” 

Margo frowned. “You’re not totally wrong,” she allowed. “Quentin and Eliot...they do have a history.” _Involving me_ , her inner voice added, but that really wasn’t relevant at this point in time. “I know Eliot had a crush on Q the moment they met - this isn’t a secret, by the way,” she added. “He was very blatant about it.”

“I don’t think that would work,” interrupted Josh. “This spell makes it clear that true love has to be on both sides. Otherwise it would have worked for Fen.” He grabbed the pages back from Margo, re-checking the passages. “Q and Eliot were always really close but didn’t Quentin and Alice just get back together?”

“That made absolutely no fucking sense to me,” Penny said, shaking his head. “It’s like ever since Quentin went to Brakebills South he turned into a different person.”

“Well, did anyone actually ask him about what went down?”

Silence in the room. 

And Margo felt suddenly guilty.

She had been Q’s friend. Back in the early days. And then everything got so crazy with Fillory and she’d been elected - elected! - as High King and the truth was, she just hadn’t had the time to invest in any friends who weren’t in her immediate surroundings. With Quentin on Earth and her in Fillory, she just hadn’t...noticed that their friendship had drifted. He was Q, and he was always there, and would always be the same. Right?

“You guys know he almost died destroying the Monster, right?” 

Margo actually didn’t know that. She’d been consumed with nursing Eliot back to health. She looked at Penny, feeling twinges of guilt. “But he was fine, right?”

“Only because of Alice.” Penny stepped further into the room, lowered his voice. “Look, I’m just saying that Quentin didn’t try very hard to stay alive in the mirror world. If Alice hadn’t taken charge, Quentin would have died right along with Everett.”

The silence in the room was heavy. 

“Shit, I had no idea.” That was Josh. “He seemed fine when we got that amazing cake!” He paused, seemingly lost in the memory. “That cake ruined me forever.”

Sighing, Penny continued, “Look, I don’t want to talk about the dude behind his back. But I know that he cares about Eliot; hell, all of us care about Eliot. Even me and I barely know the dude! But all of you seem to love him so I figure he must be at least as cool as the Eliot from my world.” He took a deep breath, challenging Margo. “So if there’s a chance that Quentin can do something then why the fuck doesn’t he try it?”

Stepping closer to Penny, Margo stared directly into his eyes. Looking for the truth. “You’re that sure that you saw something?” 

He nodded.

“Then leave this with me.”


	2. Chapter 2

Margo paced, not knowing how to start. She knew that Eliot had crushed hard on Quentin back in the early days. Remembered that night where the three of them had hooked up, and it had been amazing, but she’d passed out early on after she got what she wanted (multiple orgasms, thank you very much). Q and Eliot had kept going and there was a reason that Alice had blamed Eliot - and not Margo - for the cheating. They’d all seen the undercurrent of attraction. They’d all witnessed the special friendship between the two.

And then there’d been the key quest last year.

Eliot never got to tell her what truly happened. He’d promised to tell her the whole thing one day, after they got magic back, but they weren’t yet at that “one day” and Eliot was still...gone. Not dead. But not living either. (She’d cried so many tears over him and yet again, the tears threatened to come.)

But still...there had been something. Things were different. Eliot had seemed older, more mature. And he and Q had been weird around each other - both closer and more distant at the same time. She couldn’t figure it out at the time but now it seemed totally obvious...something had happened between them and the stupid boys didn’t know how to navigate it. 

And of course, now Q was in total denial.

It was Quentin’s shift by Eliot’s bedside - at least he hadn’t pussied out of that, even if he didn’t have the balls to kiss the man. Margo was supposed to take over soon (she really wasn’t sure how she’d gotten stuck with the dawn shift, given that Fen was the fuckingly annoying morning person who should be taking over at this point so that Margo could get the beauty sleep she deserved) but she would fix that scheduling error tomorrow. For now, it gave her a chance to talk to Quentin, uninterrupted, just the two of them.

She took a deep breath and stepped into the room.

Quentin was lightly dozing in the chair by Eliot’s bed. As for Eliot, there had been no change. He still lay quietly, in regal repose. Always majestic, she reflected, even when unconscious. She quietly pulled up a chair by Quentin, not wanting to scare him, but making enough noise so that he would soon rouse. In the meantime, she took Eliot’s hand. It was comforting to feel the warmth and know that he was still alive and breathing.

She heard the change in Q’s breathing as he drifted back into wakefulness. “Margo?” he mumbled, opening his eyes. Dim candles were dotted around the room, almost at the ends of their lives. “Is it morning already?”

“Almost,” she said softly. “I couldn’t sleep.” That wasn’t a total fucking lie, she would have been sleeping just fine if she hadn’t been trying to figure out how to convince Q to open up to her when they hadn’t been close in over a year. “And since I was awake anyway I thought I’d come in here and check on how you were doing.”

That woke him up. “Who are you and what have you done with Margo?” It was said in jest, but it still hurt. She knew her reputation was cold but after all they’d been through together, he still saw her that way? 

“Look, Q, I know that you know I pretend not to care, but I actually do.” She stared at him. “So let’s cut through the BS, okay?”

Quentin, to his credit, nodded.

“So we have a problem here.” She had decided to present this logically, because she really wasn’t cut out for all of this emotional stuff. “One, Eliot is unconscious.” She checked off her fingers with each number. “Two, we found a spell that could heal him.” Quentin shifted nervously. “Three, the spell is very clear that there has to be reciprocated sexual attraction.” She had decided to sell it as attraction rather than as a ‘one true love’ because, well, that could be a little overwhelming and Quentin seemed spooked enough already. And of all people, Margo was the only one who truly knew that Q and El were hot for each other (at the very least). 

“Four, one of Eliot’s best friends hasn’t tried the spell yet because…” And then she trailed off. “This is the part where you help me understand.”

The man in question shrugged. “I’m with Alice,” he offered, looking at his hands. “It won’t work.”

“Bullshit,” Margo countered. “Spells like this don’t care who you’re currently dating.”

He swallowed, hard. “But … Alice does.”

Oh. 

Oh. And it suddenly made sense, in a way. He’d cheated on Alice already in the past. He clearly didn’t want to do that to her again.

“Is that why you didn’t kiss him earlier? When everyone was here?” Margo patted him on the arm. “Look, Q, you can kiss him now. I promise I won’t tell anyone. If it works, we can pretend that it was a delayed reaction from my kiss. Or we can pretend that he just woke up on his own.” 

It seemed so perfectly reasonable to her that she couldn’t understand it when Quentin kept shaking his head. He seemed so broken, so tired, so resigned. Like there was no spark left in him. 

“No, Margo, I…” And he broke off. “I just...can’t do this.”

“Why the fuck not?” Now she was getting angry. “What’s one little kiss compared to getting my best friend back? Fuck you, Coldwater!” She jumped to her feet, ready for a righteous tirade. “I am sure Eliot loves you. Penny told me that you were ready to do anything to get him back. And here you are, sitting by his bedside and pretending to care, but I guess this is just all an act.” She grew more and more furious. “I thought you loved him too!”

“I do!” Quentin yelled back.

And something broke inside of him. 

“I fucking love him, okay?” he admitted. “But it doesn’t make any difference! It won’t work because he doesn’t love me back!”

She stared at him. Shocked. “Yes he does.”

Quentin was shaking his head. “No, he doesn’t. Not like...not like that.” He sunk back into his chair, looking more defeated than Margo had ever seen him look. 

“I thought that I could save him,” Quentin whispered. “And then everything kept going wrong and I realised that it was probably because I was trying too hard, and that it wasn’t me who was supposed to save him because I’m not his best friend. I’m not his soulmate.” He stared at Margo, a little resentfully. “That’s you, and it doesn’t matter how much I wished it would change, it didn’t.

“And then the kissing spell didn’t work for you so I went and asked Kady to check in the library, and she said that it has to be true love on both sides, so it’s not going to work anyway and I just…” He seemed to be struggling to get the words out. “I just can’t try again, okay?” There were tears in his eyes. “I just can’t.”

The silence was heavy in the room. Margo didn’t know what to say. Quentin was hurting and it sounded like he was recovering from a broken heart. Just what the fuck had happened between Q and El? 

“Look, Margo, I’m trying really hard to get better here. Alice is part of that. And I need to focus on making that relationship good and stop getting my hopes up.

“I love Eliot,” he continued. “Part of me always will. But he turned me down; he made it clear that we are only friends. So I will do anything for him - absolutely anything,” he vowed, “but I need to try and be happy again.” He swallowed, hard. “I can’t do that while I’m still holding on to hope.”

Her thoughts spinning, Margo said, “What, so you are expecting _Alice_ to fix you?”

Quentin ran a hand through his own hair, frustrated, desperate. “She needs something good in her life. I can be that for her. And if she’s happy, then I can be happy.” He looked at Margo, despair in his eyes. “Right?”

“Oh Q,” and she couldn’t help it any more, she reached out and put his arms around him. “Q. I am so, so sorry.” She felt him shudder in her arms, holding back sobs. Penny had been right, no one, absolutely _no one_ , had asked Quentin how he was feeling or holding up the entire past year, and given what she’d heard the Monster had done, it was amazing that Quentin was even walking or standing at this point. 

“Tell me what happened,” she whispered.

And Quentin told her.

He told her everything, about the moment he woke up from being Brian to the moment that he’d realised they were never getting Eliot back. How he, Quentin Coldwater, was personally responsible for every single one of the deaths the Monster had caused, because he just couldn’t let go. How the Monster had tormented him at night - “and it kept touching me, with Eliot’s hand, and it was Eliot’s face and eyes and I loved him at the same time I hated him-” and how every single day was a living nightmare because he couldn’t save the man he loved.

“It didn’t matter that Eliot turned me down,” he said. “Because I wanted him back and it didn’t matter how, I just needed him to be alive. But then everything got so fucked up along the way and I…” He trailed off. “I just-I - I don’t know.” A pause. “I just couldn’t breathe any more.

“And then,” Quentin confessed, “I went back in time to when I was still with Alice and I remembered how simple things were then. How I thought that everything was possible when we were together, and how lost I was when she died, and I thought, maybe that’s the key. Maybe she’s what I need to fix me.” 

“Quentin, you know a person can’t fix you, honey.” She continued rocking him in her arms. He knew this. She knew this. Everyone knew this, right?”

He nodded. “But I thought that if I could help her, and she could help me, then … maybe it could be enough?” There was an element of hope in his voice even though he obviously didn’t believe it. 

“But it’s not.”

“It’s not.” He shuddered again, a lingering sob. “I was so close to giving up.”

This made her angry. “No. Q, you do NOT get to give up. Do you know what it would do to us? To this group?”

He shook his head.

“We’re only friends because of you. Hell, my entire life would be different if it wasn’t for you! El and I would still be at the Physical Kids cottage, partying away our lives.” 

“Maybe that would be better,” Quentin said darkly.

“Or we’d probably be dead.” She wanted to shock him into understanding that he had value, that his life had meaning. “I wouldn’t be a King if it weren’t for you. I wouldn’t have ever known how much more powerful I can be, that I can embrace all of myself.” She took a deep breath, trying to convince Quentin of the truth that his life meant something. “You are the reason we all kept fighting and kept going. Together. And you are so much more than what you think.”

He was quiet then. Margo truly hoped that he was hearing her words. She wasn’t just making things up to get him to listen to her. Everything she’d said was true, and she realised that this group that had formed; it was all because of Quentin, and she probably wouldn’t even be with Josh right now if it wasn’t for him either. It was crazy to think that, but he was the one who’d insisted that Josh be part of the group during the key quest. And now Josh had been her only link to Earth this past year with Eliot gone. 

“We need you, Quentin. And we need you whole.” She dropped her eyes to the floor. “And I’m sorry that we weren’t there for you. That I wasn’t there for you.” She couldn’t speak for the others, but she could make her own promise. Pressing his hand to her heart, she vowed, “But I will be now.”

She barely heard it, but finally, Quentin spoke. “Okay,” he whispered. And it was enough.

They sat in silence for a long time. Three friends, two alive, one barely holding on, breathing together in the dark. The last of the candles flickered out but for once, the darkness didn’t seem oppressive. And at long last, the first light of dawn filtered down.

Margo had kept herself curled close to Quentin, and reached out to take Eliot’s hand again. For some crazy reason, she felt a shred of hope. They were all alive, and surely that counted for something?

It was Quentin who finally broke the silence. “If I kiss him, you can’t tell Alice, okay?”

And there it was. She sat up and looked at him. Something had changed behind Q’s eyes. There was a new resolve, something that hadn’t been there before. It was almost like he was in charge of his own destiny again. Like he knew that Alice was just a stop-gap and he had to change things before they got too far out of control.

“I promise, Q,” she said sincerely. “Everything that happened in this room tonight stays between us.” 

He still looked utterly wrecked but she could see the spark. The spark of the old Quentin, the one who, despite everything, still believed. Still hoped. 

“You’re right that I owe it to him,” Q said. “I was trying to hide from it. But that’s not fair to Eliot.”

He stood up and squared his shoulders. “So...do I need to make a speech or do I just...do it?”

Margo wanted a speech. The spell needed love, passion, devotion. It needed a promise to love and forsake all others. It needed the belief that this one person was your _only_ person, all of the encompassing chemical-induced passion that came with being crazy-in-love. It was putting your heart out there on a limb and hoping that it would be embraced. 

But how could she ask that of Q? How could any of them ask him to risk his heart yet again? But the stakes...the stakes were Eliot’s life. And so she had to. 

“Do what you feel in your heart,” she whispered. 

Margo stood by Quentin’s side and took one hand. His other hand cupped Eliot’s face. Quentin leaned forward, his face just inches from Eliot’s.

“Eliot,” he whispered, “We had fifty years and I would do them over in a heartbeat.” A pause. “But you know that already. What you don’t know is that I’m still here and I will always love you, no matter how things are between us. And...and I just really want you back.” 

The room was so still, as if the entire universe was listening. Margo was too afraid to move, hoping that both Quentin and Eliot could feel how much she loved them both. This had to work. It would be just one little kiss, but with the power to change everything.

Quentin leaned down and gently pressed his lips against Eliot’s. Finally. The seconds ticked by, the world holding its breath, and a single tear tracked down Quentin’s cheek. 

And then he pulled back, dropped Margo’s hand, and fled the room.

As the dawn light streamed through the open window, reaching the prone figure on the bed, there was the barest flutter of movement. 

Eliot opened his eyes.


End file.
